DAYTON — Each Saturday morning, the Felton family eats breakfast early and heads to the airport for a weekend at church — 244 miles away in Cleveland. They are one of an increasing number of families eschewing local congregations and joining regional mega-church powerhouses.

“It’s worth it,” says Paul Felton, 49, who shells out roughly $500 a week to fly his family of four to Forest Creek Life Center. “Spiritual development and global impact are worth any price.”

More Christians are tired of belonging to small congregations, and are trading in the cozy comfort of the church on the corner for gospel-spreading juggernauts like Forest Creek.

“I felt I needed to apologize for attending a rinky-dink place,” says Mary Felton, 42, about their former small church. “The people were nice, but we never did anything big or lasting.”

Sensing an opportunity, mega-churches have begun cultivating congregations over vast areas — as far as 500-700 miles away. Some have started private airplane service and built airfields to whisk people in for Sunday and mid-week services. Some “church” airfields are busier than municipal airports on weekends.

“Economies of scale make it possible,” says one church administrator, who used to be a regional manager for Wal-Mart. “We can fly 10 or 12 families in each week and break even on cost. They get a much better experience and become part of a bigger vision. The idea of a corner church reaching the world for Christ is pleasant fiction.”

Indeed, where small churches see mega-churches as aggressive member-poachers, large-church pastors see small churches as selfish “social clubs,” offering a “comfort zone” experience.

“People who prefer small churches generally want a Normal Rockwell experience, but they are not interested in spreading the gospel or impacting the world,” the administrator says. “In the end, their church attendance is about themselves and their safe vision of their lives.”

But that may be changing, albeit slowly. In the past two years, the number of families commuting by air has quintupled, though it’s still a tiny fraction of overall attendance. Bob and Patty Rings say they became fed up with their small church “when we put on the same Christmas performance, with the same actors for the third year in a row,” says Patty. “We put on a play for ourselves, basically. We didn’t even have altar calls anymore. I realized, ‘This isn’t going anywhere.'”

Through the Internet, the Rings discovered that Mountaintop Christian Center of Colorado Springs, a church of 20,000, offered weekend flights from Bozeman, Mont., where the Rings reside.

“It just clicked,” she says. “We said, ‘This is our moment.’ Christians have a chance to make a profound influence on American culture right now, especially with the election we just had. We have a place at the table. Who wants to fritter away their energy at a tiny church with no real vision?”

The Rings arrive in Colorado Springs on Saturday in time to eat at the church’s outdoor café, then attend the evening service, stay over in the church’s mini-hotel, attend Sunday school on Sunday morning and return home.

During the week, they join a small group by videoconference, with other Bozeman families who commute.

“We feel just like we’re there in the room with everyone else,” says Patty. “Bob even makes coffee and warms up sticky buns so we have the smell.” •